Traditional utility services such as laundry service devices or public laundry facilities are typically activated by payment coins which are collected at each laundry machine individually. A user must obtain a sufficient number of coins of the correct denomination to activate the machine for a washer or dryer load. Many public laundry facilities provide bill changers which accept currency bills and dispense coins for the convenience of the users. Fundamentally, this system presents at least two distinct disadvantages.
The first disadvantage of the above system is to the user. The user generally has to have a sufficient number of coins on hand. The second disadvantage is to the collector or owner of the laundry facility who is required to empty the coin collectors in each of the machines. Furthermore, if these coins are not collected at regular intervals this provides a temptation to potential vandalism or theft. In addition the bill changers are also prone to vandalism and theft since a large number of coins must be stocked in the bill changers. This also ties up operating capital for the owner of the facility. Furthermore the operator of the facility must employ a trustworthy person to make frequent collections of the accumulated coins and bills, and the task of counting the coins is time consuming.
In anticipation of these disadvantages various systems have been devised for purchasing such services without requiring the exchange or collection of coins at the service device.
For example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,225,977 a card payment system for service dispensing devices is described. Therein, a user is provided with a mag-strip card on which a particular type of service, which has been previously purchased, is encoded by way of a cash transaction. In this system a local controller, which may not necessarily be located with the service devices, is connected to the laundry service devices and a central controller. The local controller and the central controller are connected together for the transfer of information between them. The laundry facility provides a card dispenser which includes a bill acceptor slot and a card reader. In order for the user to add value to the card a currency bill is inserted into the bill acceptor. A corresponding amount is then recorded on the card for use in the laundry machine. This system has a disadvantage in that once the user has obtained a valid card and the card is inserted in the local controller an authorization request must be transmitted to the central controller where it accesses an accounts database to receive and transmit an authorization message to the local controller. Thus a disadvantage of the system is that both the local controller and the central controller have to be in constant communication. This is quite unfeasible in situations where there is a large number of laundry or service facilities to be monitored or operated. Furthermore, it is inconvenient for the user to always attend at a central controller location in order to add a new value to their cash card. A further disadvantage of the system is that each laundry device is in communication with the local controller thus providing less flexibility in the location of the devices.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,475,585 a transactional processing system is disclosed. This patent concerns a real time transaction processing system for eliminating batch or interactive billing processes with the vendor or service provider. This patent is specifically concerned with billing and purchasing of pay-per-view television programming and is not directly applicable to the purchasing of services in a multi-device situation.
Thus none of the systems to date mitigate the disadvantages discussed above in an effective and affordable prepaid metering system.